JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – More than 12 hours after a triple murder that Sheriff Nat Glover said was the most gruesome of his career, police were still at the scene where a flurry of bullets were fired at a woman and her two nephews inside their car.
"Bam, bam, bam, bam bam -- I thought it was ... fireworks," a witness said.
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More than a dozen shots were fired at the corner of Fairfax and Third Street -- believed to come from an automatic weapon -- just after 8 p.m. Thursday, killing Deon Kirkland, 13, and Chris Kirkland, 12.
Their aunt, Johnnie Gatlin, was rushed to Shands Jacksonville Medical Center, but died from multiple gunshot wounds.
Police said they have no motive and no suspects, other than they are looking for a burgundy Pontiac Grand Am that was seen in the area right after the shooting.
Glover has called an emergency meeting of his top homicide, intelligence and patrol officers to see how they can solve this crime.
"It's sad. They are some bright young men. They're just trying to make for the future -- want to be somebody," the boys' aunt Sharon Kirkland said Friday. "If anybody knows anything, they should come forward."
Investigators told Channel 4 they did not know if the three were the intended targets of the shooting.
Grief counselors were at both of the schools where the boys attended Friday, helping students cope with the deaths that many heard about on the morning news.
"The children will feel all sorts of feelings, from just numbness, sadness, anger, fear," grief counselor Nat Michelson said.
Deon played football and basketball at Southside Middle School, and officials said the eighth-grader was a standout among the student body of 1,100.
"This is very difficult. This is not something you wake up and think this is going to happen at your school," principal M.C. Jeffrey said. "He was a child that you'd love to have in the classroom. A wonderful, wonderful student."
"He was a very generous and polite guy," Deon's classmate, Brittney Van Weed, said. "Everybody's really going to miss him."
Chris Kirkland was in the fifth grade at Hogan-Spring Glen Elementary School, but in a special program to try and advance two grades in one year.
"He was a great leader, and very well liked; (a) very athletic, funny kid. Just had a lot of friends," principal Anne Miller said.
Back in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred, residents watch the continuing police activity.
"I hope they catch 'em and burn 'em," one woman told Channel 4's Brad Puffer. "It's bad enough for grow people, but little kids. That's so horrible."
"We need as much help from the public community as possible," Glover said at the scene Thursday night.